Week 47 (Week 1 Back in Brazil!)

 

Me and my companion, Elder Souza

Hello everyone! This week has been crazy! On Wednesday night I drove down with Elder Kofford to Grand Rapids, Michigan to do a little companion swap, and stayed the night with a couple elders in Lansing. The next morning President and Sister Heap picked me up, and I departed for Brazil.

Now I am here, in São Paulo again, about the same time of year as last year when I first went to Brazil.  I am honestly so excited to be here again.  The work and mission culture is definitely very different, but I know that I will come to love this mission.  My new companion's name is Elder Souza, and he has about 2 months left on his mission.  He actually served in Ghana Africa, English speaking, so he speaks very good English.  He is an awesome guy, and super funny, yet hard working as well.




Currently, I am serving in the area Bras Cubas, a smaller part of the mission, but still not super rural.  I actually quite like the ward here! For my first Sunday here, I ended up giving a talk with Elder Sousa (in Portuguese) and also was asked last minute to fill in for the pianist.  So I have been getting better with playing piano, but I was still super scared to play. But everything was fine, especially because I chose the songs which were two of the easiest songs to play in the hymn book... But it was certainly a crazy first Sunday.  

We also had the chance to attend 2 baptisms of our neighboring areas, one of which was of someone Elder Sousa taught in the past.  It was actually so cool to attend these baptisms since I never had the chance in Michigan to see a baptism.  





Learning the language has definitely been hard, but I have faith that I can learn quickly! The mission President here, President Miller, has high expectations for us new American missionaries, and wants us to speak near perfect Portuguese in 8 weeks. It's pretty crazy, but I have faith, especially since Elder Souza is helping me to learn quickly.  

Speaking of, I ended up coming into the mission with 10 other missionaries from the states! Four of them I had come into the mission with last year at the same time, so it was cool to see them again!  






But I am super excited to serve in Brazil again and learn the language.  I hope you are all doing well, and have a blessed week!

~Elder Kasey Lightheart

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